1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a flame protection component and, more particularly, to a gasket which has a flame protection screen formed as an integral part of the gasket structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to those skilled in the art that a perforated metal plane, such as a screen, can be used as a flame arresting structure when placed over a conduit within which flammable gases can exist. The perforated surface inhibits the progression of a flame front within the gas containing structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,289, which issued to Polaner on May 19, 1981, describes a flame arresting air filter element. It has an outer ring of pleated filtering paper and an inner, concentric ring formed of expanded metal foil, longitudinally stretched and laterally compressed so as to be adapted to diffuse and quench flames resulting from engine backfire.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,591, which issued to Nelson on Jan. 16, 1990, describes a manifold flame arrestor. The system is intended for use with an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders. It serves to reduce the possibility of transmission of combustion producing flame from a cylinder into the intake manifold of an engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,913, which issued to Okumura et al. on Oct. 25, 1994, describes a flame arrester arrangement for a marine propulsion engine. The flame arrester is positioned vertically above the thermostat housing at one end of the engine and the plenum chamber for the intake manifold is disposed above the exhaust elbow of the engine so as to provide good induction efficiency and compact size.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,187, which issued to Jaeger et al. on Jan. 20, 1998, discloses a flame arrestor for a marine engine which includes an air box mounted to the combustion air intake and a uniplanar flame arresting element mounted to the air box and passing combustion air therethrough in a first direction into the air intake and blocking flame propagation in a second opposite direction out of the air intake. Air flow from the flame arresting element to the air intake is rectilinear.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,401, which issued to Alassoeur et al. on Aug. 8, 2000, describes an after burner flame holder with rotationally splitting radial arms. The device is intended for a turbo jet engine. The arms consist of a fixed rear part and a front part which is separable from the rear part in a circumferential direction along a median joint plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,267, which issued to Westerbeke et al. on Mar. 16, 2004, describes combustion engines. A safety feature includes an intake silencer defining an internal volume sized to help attenuate air pressure fluctuations generated within the carburetor and engine and transmitted back through the entering combustion air. It also functions as a flame arrester.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,637, which issued to Sharpton on Dec. 28, 2004, discloses an adapter for an idle air control valve. It has a rigid tubular member extending between a distal insertion end and an attachment pedestal end. The insertion member, or distal end, is rigidly attached to an air passage of the throttle body and an idle air control valve is rigidly attached to the attachment end. This allows an idle air control valve to be rigidly mounted to a throttle body while being displaced from the throttle body and held in a non-contact association with the throttle body to allow different variations and styles of idle air control valves to be used with various types of throttle bodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,077,113, which issued to Bilek et al. on Jul. 18, 2006, describes a combined intercooler and flame arrester. The intercooler comprises an elongated body having a longitudinal axis. The elongated body has a central passageway that extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis. An inlet opening is located on one end of the elongated body such that the intake gas enters the central passageway through the inlet body.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,378, which issued to Jaeger et al. on Nov. 21, 2006, discloses a component mounting system for a marine engine. An attachment and support system is provided for supporting a flame arrestor and cover at a preselected position relative to a throttle body which, in turn, is attached to an air intake manifold. A support member is attached, by four bolts, to the air intake manifold. The four bolts, or alternative attachment components, simultaneously attach the throttle body to the air intake manifold and the support member to the throttle body. Both the flame arrestor and cover are attached, by a stud, to the support member.
The patents described above are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in the description of the present invention.
In view of Coast Guard regulations requiring flame arresters to be, in essence, tamper proof, it would be significantly beneficial if a flame arrester, or flame retarding element, could be provided which remains in place after service operations are completed or after components are replaced. It would be beneficial if a flame prevention component could be provided which cannot easily be removed or omitted during reassembly following the servicing of the associated internal combustion engine.